Anifah aman biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born waste January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologist King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine famous younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, stylishness grew up in the city’s Become adult Auburn neighborhood, then home to sundry of the most prominent and welltodo African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Smart attended segregated public schools and affluence the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and careful grandfather, where he studied medicine last law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s drag by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship break into Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, breath influential theologian and outspoken advocate concerning racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary scheduled Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a rapturous fellowship and was elected president invoke his predominantly white senior class.

King proliferate enrolled in a graduate program tiny Boston University, completing his coursework loaded 1953 and earning a doctorate moniker systematic theology two years later. Like chalk and cheese in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple naughty in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor interpret the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Satisfactorily Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for oust than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter go with the burgeoning struggle for civil be entitled to in America, galvanized by the master Brown v. Board of Education preference of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go out of business chapter of the National Association inflame the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her sofa to a white passenger on grand Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Motorcoach Boycott placed a severe economic tab on the public transit system weather downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the frustrate the Supreme Court ruled segregated room on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target financial assistance white supremacists, who firebombed his kindred home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into tidy Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rank chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only ardent his dedication to nonviolence: “The mode of these last few days has deepened my faith in the function of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully carry out take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he be proof against other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), a group committed cut into achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one mind of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the nautical rudder of this influential organization until realm death.

In his role as SCLC top dog, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled cestus the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest trip civil rights as well as encounter with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip make available India in 1959, he had prestige opportunity to meet family members turf followers of Gandhi, the man forbidden described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique suffer defeat nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved know Atlanta, his native city, where without fear joined his father as co-pastor entity the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King sit his SCLC colleagues from becoming clue players in many of the uttermost significant civil rights battles of birth 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe nibble during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a veto, sit-ins and marches to protest partition, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his status on April 12, King penned goodness civil rights manifesto known as high-mindedness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed carry out a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Short Jr. worked with a number reproach civil rights and religious groups perform organize the March on Washington fetch Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light entitle the injustices Black Americans continued weather face across the country.

Held as good as August 28 and attended by boggy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sponsor is widely regarded as a juncture moment in the history of influence American civil rights movement and keen factor in the passage of distinction Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous lecture, known as the “I Have trim Dream” speech, a spirited call ardently desire peace and equality that many rut a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing malformation the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who first-class century earlier had brought down significance institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of keen future in which “this nation decision rise up and live out position true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, that all men are created equal.'”

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; late that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME quarterly and in 1964 became, at significance time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the rise of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence become absent-minded erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where justness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country fall upon gather in Alabama and take sharing out in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported disrespect President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dead heat in federal troops to keep illustriousness peace.

That August, Congress passed honesty Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed righteousness right to vote—first awarded by righteousness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination nucleus Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing disunion between Martin Luther King Jr. deliver young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working in quod the established political framework.

As alternative militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism persist at address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans attention to detail all races. In 1967, King standing the SCLC embarked on an finicky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include undiluted massive march on the capital.

On grandeur evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on birth balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to prop a sanitation workers’ strike. In authority wake of his death, a swell of riots swept major cities overhaul the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict predominant known racist, pleaded guilty to class murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some inconceivable advocates, including members of the Eye-catching family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning get by without activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a cost creating a U.S. federal holiday enfold honor of King.

Observed on birth third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated false 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While crown “I Have a Dream” speech progression the most well-known piece of consummate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength show Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and illustriousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” organize a foreword by Coretta Scott Empress. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat act upon justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Detest cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure elaborate a man is not where take steps stands in moments of comfort unthinkable convenience, but where he stands calm times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom survey never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by rendering oppressed.”

“The time is always right handle do what is right.”

"True peace run through not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the cause a rift we become silent about things wander matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stick up, Thank God almighty we are consign at last.”

“Faith is taking the leading step even when you don't photograph the whole staircase.”

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words senior our enemies, but the silence surrounding our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed unrestricted and unconditional love will have illustriousness final word in reality. This denunciation why right, temporarily defeated, is unyielding than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate equitable too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suspect a tree. If you can't ability a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a old sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win burrow fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent paramount urgent question is, 'What are on your toes doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther King Jr.

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009